Guide
How to price a 3D print
This is the same method as the calculator, written out. It does not add a second set of prices. Filament and resin prices change by brand and by week, so this page does not list them.
What to have open
- The slicer estimate for this job, in grams of filament or milliliters of resin.
- What you paid for the spool or bottle, and the net amount of material, not the weight of the whole package.
- How long the print takes, and either a measured wattage or the wattage you are willing to plan with.
- The price per kWh on your utility bill, if you want electricity in the cost.
- A failure rate you believe, from your own reprints, not from a generic percentage.
Material
Divide what you paid by the net filament or resin. A listing that says 1 kg often means 1,000 g of plastic. The empty reel is extra, and it is not part of the print. Multiply that per-gram or per-milliliter cost by what this job uses.
Include brim, raft, supports, and purge if the slicer spent that material on the job. PrintPrice does not open a 3D file and will not notice material you left out.
Resin goes in as milliliters, which is how most resin slicers report volume. If a bottle is labeled in grams, convert with the density on that manufacturer’s sheet before you type it in. The calculator does not guess a resin density.
When the slicer shows meters
The home page can turn a length into grams. It needs the filament diameter and the density in g/cm³ from the technical data sheet. The formula is π × (diameter ÷ 2)² × meters × density, with diameter in millimeters. That product is grams. Density is left blank on purpose. A preset would pretend that every PLA is the same.
1.75 mm and 2.85 mm are common spool sizes. Use the number printed on yours.
Cost per gram and per milliliter, including the empty spool and the meters conversion, is written out in how to calculate filament cost.
Electricity
The cost of one attempt is (watts ÷ 1000) × hours × your price per kWh.
Printer efficiency is not estimated. The watts and the time are whatever you enter. A number on the power supply is a ceiling, not the draw of this print. A plug-in meter, averaged across a real job, is closer. Idle heat and a bed that cycles on and off are already inside a measured average. They are not inside a nameplate wattage.
If you use the starting figure, it is the U.S. residential average from EIA Table 5.3 for August 2026: 18.16 cents per kWh. The table was released 23 October 2026. This site read it on 11 November 2026. EIA marks 2026 values as preliminary, and the figure is average revenue per kWh, not the tariff on your bill. Replace it.
The watt-hour steps, and why a nameplate wattage is a ceiling, are in electricity cost of a 3D print.
Failed prints
The failure rate is the share of attempts that do not become a sale. At 20%, four attempts succeed and one fails out of five, so each sale carries 1.25 attempts of material and electricity. The material line is the successful attempt. The waste line is the extra 0.25 attempt.
Arithmetic only, not a material price: suppose one attempt uses $1.00 of filament and $0.10 of electricity, and 1 in 5 attempts fails. The sale carries $1.25 of filament and $0.125 of electricity. Of that, $0.25 of filament and $0.025 of electricity are waste. The finished print’s own filament is still the $1.00 line.
A rate of 100% cannot be priced. Every attempt would fail, and there would be no sale to spread the cost onto.
Labor, packaging, and other costs
Labor is an hourly rate times the time you enter. If that time is spent on every attempt, failed prints add labor to the waste line. If it is only sanding or packing a finished piece, keep it on the successful print.
Packaging is per successful print. Other costs are once for the order.
Postage you pay, design time, and machine wear can go in other costs. PrintPrice does not set a wear rate per hour. If you have one, type it. Do not put buyer-paid shipping there. That amount, if you charge it, belongs in the fee section, because some marketplaces charge a percentage on it.
Marketplace fees
In person, the quote adds no percentage. A card reader can still charge you. The calculator does not invent that rate. Use Custom and type the one you pay.
Etsy fields start from Etsy Help, read 11 November 2026. The transaction fee on that page is 6.5% of the order amount, including shipping and gift wrap you charge the buyer. For a United States bank account, the processing page lists 3% + 0.25 USD. Processing is also taken from shipping, and from sales tax if you charge tax on the listing. This quote does not add sales tax. Other bank-account countries are in the calculator’s list, copied from the same table. Flat fees that are not in USD are not converted. Confirm the live rate in your own dashboard.
The listing fee on the fees page is $0.20 USD. It is charged when you publish, whether or not the item sells, and again for each extra quantity in the same order. A listing also costs that amount when it renews after 4 months. The checkbox adds the fee once per successful print in this order. It does not add later renewals. Leave it off if this quote should not carry the publish charge.
Offsite Ads are optional in the quote because you only pay them when Etsy attributes the order. The fees page says 15% if you made less than $10,000 in the past 365 days and 12% if you made at least $10,000. The Offsite Ads page, read the same day, says 15% when a shop has always stayed under $10,000 USD in any 365-day stretch, and 12% for the life of the shop after it has crossed that mark. Those two descriptions are not the same. Use the rate on your Offsite Ads dashboard. Both pages cap the fee at $100 USD per order. The quote applies that cap as $100.
A regulatory operating fee is named for some countries and is not given as one percent on the page we read, so the field starts empty. Etsy Ads fees are described as variable, so that field starts empty too. A 2.5% currency conversion fee is stated for the case where listing currency and payment currency differ. The page does not define the base clearly enough to turn it on for you.
Percentage fees are grossed up. If you ask to keep a profit after a 10% fee, the selling price is raised so the fee comes out of the price and the profit is what remains. A flat fee, such as a processing charge per order, is added once for the order.
A worked Etsy example, including buyer-paid shipping and an Offsite Ads order, is in Etsy fees on a 3D print.
Margin and markup
These are different ways to name the same dollars, and they are easy to swap by accident.
Arithmetic only, on a $10 cost with no fees:
| What you ask for | Profit | Selling price |
|---|---|---|
| $4 of profit | $4 | $14 |
| 40% markup | $4, because markup is a share of the $10 cost | $14 |
| 40% margin | $6.67, because margin is a share of the selling price | $16.67 |
With fees, the calculator raises the price so the profit you asked for is what is left after the fee. A 40% margin plus a high percentage fee can be impossible: the fee and the margin cannot both claim the same part of the price. If that happens, the form says so.
The quote rounds money to the nearest cent and picks the smallest cent that still meets the profit you asked for.
What the suggestion leaves out
- Income tax and sales tax.
- Returns, refunds, and the time you spend writing to buyers.
- A wear rate, unless you typed one under other costs.
- Shipping the buyer pays, unless you typed it into the fee base. Your own postage is an other cost.
- Any fee the cited page did not state as a number.
The suggested price is a planning estimate. It is not an invoice. Your spool, your bill, and the marketplace dashboard are the records that count.
Look up current products
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
These open Amazon search pages so you can see what is listed today. They are not a price list. PrintPrice does not check what they show and does not copy a product price onto this site.
- Search Amazon for PLA filament
- Search Amazon for PETG filament
- Search Amazon for printer resin
- Search Amazon for a plug-in electricity meter
Pages this guide relies on
- Etsy Help: What are the Fees and Taxes for Selling on Etsy?
Read 11 November 2026. Transaction fee of 6.5% of the order amount, including shipping and gift wrap you charge. Listing fee of $0.20 USD. Offsite Ads at 15% under $10,000 in the past 365 days and 12% at or above that, capped at $100. A regulatory operating fee is named for some countries and is not given as one universal percent.
- Etsy Help: What are Payment Processing Fees for Selling on Etsy?
Read 11 November 2026. Processing fee by the country of the seller’s bank account. The United States row is 3% + $0.25 USD, taken from the total sale price including shipping and sales tax. Other countries are different, and some flat fees are not in USD.
- Etsy Help: How Etsy’s Offsite Ads Work
Read 11 November 2026. 15% when a shop has always made less than $10,000 USD in any consecutive 365-day period, and 12% for the life of the shop after it has reached that mark. Charged only when an order is attributed to an Offsite Ad. Capped at $100 USD per order.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.3. Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers
Read 11 November 2026. U.S. residential average for August 2026: 18.16 cents per kWh. Released 23 October 2026. Values for 2026 are preliminary. This is average revenue per kWh, not a household tariff.